


Restless

by TerresDeBrume



Series: AUs without a cause [53]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Hospitals, Silly, Stress Relief
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 14:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9275150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: Steve never liked hospitals.





	

_Tap tap tap tap_ —a pause.

 

A nurse passes him by, wrapped in scrubs from head to toes, but she doesn’t look at him longer than it takes to register his name, and so he keeps going.

 

 _Tap tap tap tap tap—_ it builds up from the toes. Starts as a tickle, a worried shiver at the back of his neck until his toes start twitching with the need to move, to do something before the hole in his stomach swallows him entirely. It grows and spreads from there, ankle, calf and knee joining the dance until his whole leg is bouncing up and down like it’s trying to run a marathon without his help.

 

_Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap—_

 

_Click-y-click._

 

Steve’s ears twitch at the sound, but he doesn’t take his eyes off the hospital door anyway—prays to whatever deity still listens to him that Bucky won’t wake up in the middle of things, won’t freak out, won’t fall back into the Winter Soldier and lose himself in the blood of those who’ve been trying to save him for the past two hours now.

 

_Tap tap tap tap tap tap—_

_Click-y-click._

 

Tony must be fiddling with his pen—a beautiful, sterling silver thing that cost about two hundred dollars and made Steve’s eyes bulge in disbelief when he heard the news. He knew the world had gone crazy, but not that much.

It sounds like any other pen though—clicking when you press the button at the top, and the sound fits with Steve’s own little noise so, in an effort to keep his mind busy, he decides to try something new.

 

_Click-y-click. Tapatap-tap._

 

A pause.

 

_Click-y-click-y-click._

_Tapatap-tap tap tap._

 

Next to Steve, Pepper tenses—readjusts her position on the plastic bench until she sits so straight Steve can feel it without looking. Her hands clench in the blue of her skirt, mouth pressing into a thin line while Steve and Tony continue there little game of mundane staccatos and Bruce, slumped in the faded armchair in front of them, pretends he’s not smirking behind the gossip magazine he’s been fake-reading for the past hour.

 

 

_Click-y-click-y-click—_

_Tapatap-tap tap tap—_

_Clickyclickyclickyclickyclickyclickyclickyclickyclickyclickyclickyclickcli—_

_Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap—_

 

“I swear to God, if you two don’t stop this right now I’ll be in tomorrow’s paper as the woman who murdered two national heroes in less than five minutes—got it?”

 

Steve’s leg stills under Pepper’s glare and the lightning all but sparking from her eyes—Extremis or no, she has enough authority in her little finger to keep Steve cowed for the rest of his life, if need be.

In silence, he straightens his posture, tucks his hands between his knees, and starts counting the tiles on the floor. Slowly, painfully, his shoulders knot again, nerves tickling at his ribs until he’s practically bent in half in his seat. His knee twitches, as if trying to jerk up on its own—anything rather than inactivity.

 

Steve stays still, bites the inside of his cheek until it tastes like blood, and presses his hands together so hard it turns his knuckles white while the familiar non-silence of hospital halls falls over them like the most oppressive of blankets.

They manage to maintain this for about five minutes.

 

Then Bruce shifts in his armchair, and the leather lets out a whiny squeak—almost like a fart. Steve watches Bruce pause, glance at Pepper, lean forward again—

 

“Don’t you dare.”

 

Tony snorts, and Steve looks down to grin at his hands in peace. He still hates hospitals, but at least now he doesn’t have to do that alone.

 

It’s good.


End file.
